«Return to Blog List Give Your Success Stories Their Own Website?
On most business websites, you have to dig to find a single story.
If you do find any, it’s usually after you’ve waded through levels of capabilities copy and promises.
So separate company sites that are dedicated solely to stories are refreshing. They get it.
Stories That Sell, the book, highlights companies like Toyota and Sage Software for their separate story websites. (The latter, created for a specific campaign, is no longer live.)
The latest to come to my attention is The Ford Story.
American car makers have had one of the roughest years ever. But Ford has been surprisingly successful ($997 million profit in JUST this past quarter) and is making sure it tells its best stories.
The online Ford Story website tells internal Ford stories, such as what’s going on in R&D. But it mostly showcases customer success stories.
- 15-second commercial spots featuring real drivers talking about what they like most about their cars
- A video story about how Ford Focus owners soup up their cars
- Articles on Ford’s current initiatives in areas such as energy efficiency
- A feature on how firefighters drive Ford trucks
- Interesting, self-submitted customer success stories with photos
- The latest posts in the company’s Twitter stream
A large “Submit Your Stories” box encourages customers to share written versions of their stories in under 500 words, and add photos and videos.
Ford also enables comments on all its content, encouraging interaction.
Why a unique niche site? Almost like an online magazine, it allows a company to separate the story from the product/service facts and promises. In doing so, that story stands out more.
That’s not to say that your main site shouldn’t include success stories. But niche sites help give extra attention to specific messages you want to reinforce.
Check it out. It’s an engaging site, even if you’re not in the market for a car.
What do you think about this separate site approach?
Trackbacks/Pingbacks